Hart: Judges listen, make difference in children's lives

On paper, the plan made no sense to Juvenile Judge Angela Ellis. Sixteen-year-old twin girls in foster care wanted to go live with a 21-year-old sister. But after several face-to-face meetings with all of the young women, the judge changed her mind and agreed to the arrangement.

"They wanted to live with their sister," Ellis says. The solution "has worked out for all of them." A year later, the girls are on track to graduate from high school, with one planning to join the military, the other heading to college. Instead of bouncing from temporary foster placements, the girls created "a support system with an older sibling."

It's not Ozzie and Harriet, but it's a family.

Ellis shared the girls' story with me as an example of how a new focus by Texas' judiciary on helping kids in foster care find "forever homes" is reducing - slowly but surely - the number of kids "aging out" of the foster care system.

As I wrote on Sunday, some 1,500 Texas teenagers "graduated" from foster care in 2010 by virtue of turning 18. For many, the birthday triggers a slide into homelessness, since these newly minted adults lack the skills for independent living. At the Montrose-area Covenant House, about 40 percent of the young adults participating in the shelter's transitional living programs "aged out" of Texas' foster care programs.

Several readers astutely pointed out in emails that Texas does allow teens in foster care to voluntarily stay under the state's protection until their 21st birthday. They also noted that many programs administered by CASA (court-appointed special advocates) and Child Protective Services have programs to advise and support young adults transitioning to independent living.

Children at hearings

But kids benefiting from those programs are the "exception, rather than the rule," according to Ellis. Only 32 older teens in Harris County have sought extended jurisdiction, she says. Statewide, the number is 642. "That number is low, but it is a real challenge to persuade 17-year-olds to remain in care," she explained. "That's not so different from other kids who think they are ready to make all of their own decisions."

The urge for independence is heightened by their circumstances:

Many foster children have been moved so frequently, they have no connection to their foster "family."

So kids will continue to "age out" of the foster system - unless, of course, they are adopted or find a permanent home with relatives.

Children have appointed attorneys, caseworkers and CASA volunteers representing their interests in court, but many times they fail to mention a relative or close family friend with whom they'd like to live - rather than in a foster home. Somehow, children are more comfortable talking directly to a judge. Ellis calls her black robe "the great uncorker."

Permanent homes

Currently, some 2,200 kids in Harris County are in foster care because a court has terminated their parents' rights due to neglect or abuse. Finding permanent homes for all these kids is daunting, but Ellis says the new policy of speaking directly to kids has already made a difference. In the Harris County region, she says, the number of kids leaving foster care to permanent homes has increased by 18 percent since June. "CPS is really taking this to heart," she says. "We as a community are doing better."

Rebecca Lightsey, executive director of Texas Appleseed, agreed. "There's a real willingness on the part of everyone in the system to change how things are done," she said. An old assumption - that no one would want to adopt a grumpy teenager - is dissipating, she said.

In the short term, Lightsey believes Harris County needs "at least one more court" devoted to overseeing the huge population of local kids in foster care. "It's very difficult work to get these kids the homes they need," she said.

Difficult, but it can be done. As Ellis has learned, it just takes someone in a black robe, listening.